As Muslims across the globe head to Friday prayers, the status of Jerusalem is likely to loom large in sermons delivered by Imams everywhere from Israel to Indonesia.
Violent protests and international condemnation have followed US President Donald Trump’s decision Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and commit to moving the US embassy to the holy city.
Both Palestinians and Israelis claim Jerusalem as their capital.
Some Palestinian factions called for three “days of rage” to protest the decision, which culminates Friday.
The governments of Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia — a country home to more Muslims than any other in the world — all spoke out against the decision and protests broke out outside the US embassies in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur after prayers Friday, Islam’s holy day.
Police in Kuala Lumpur said an estimated 5,000 protesters gathered outside the US embassy and dispersed peacefully by 3 p.m. local time.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted: “On this noble day, let us pray together for our brothers in Jerusalem. May Allah unite our hearts and destroy the plans of our enemies.”
It’s unclear what enemies he was referring to — Trump and Najib met at the White House in September and appeared to establish a good rapport.
The Indonesian capital of Jakarta also saw protesters gather near the US embassy. Demonstrators held a banner that said “Trump is enemy of humanity.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement the country’s citizens should take part in Friday protests, according to Iran’s official news agency IRNA.
“It is vital that that the Muslim world and all other freedom-seeking nations across the globe thwart this evil plot,” the statement says.
The UN Security Council will discuss Trump’s move on Friday.
New intifada?
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas that controls Gaza, called for a new “intifada,” or uprising, Thursday. He also described the US-Israeli alliance as “satanic.”
The first two intifadas were periods of Palestinian uprisings against Israeli rule. The second began in September 2000 and was particularly violent, with rocket attacks and suicide bombings targeting civilians and military operations by Israeli security forces that killed thousands of Palestinians.
Nearly 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died between 2000 and 2005 during the second intifada.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said Thursday at least 49 people were injured during protests over Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the Israeli capital. Israeli security officers fired what appeared to be rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators across Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah, as well as other towns. Protesters in Ramallah were seen setting tires alight and throwing rocks at armed Israeli officers.
Leaders from Muslim-majority countries from across the world denounced the decision, with some citizens taking to the streets in protests.
Outside the US embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Thursday around 200 people gathered to protest the move. One woman held a poster of Trump with a snake for a tongue and a message reading: “America is the plague and the plague is America.”
‘Recognition of reality’
The Trump administration cast the step as a “recognition of reality” that Jerusalem has long been the seat of the Israeli government. For Trump, the embassy move also fulfilled an election campaign promise.
But the decision was met with skepticism by some of Trump’s international peers, who are concerned it could be the final nail in the coffin of the two-state solution and could provide recruiting fodder to radicals.
“These procedures do also help in the extremist organizations to wage a religious war that would harm the entire region, which is going through critical moments and would lead us into wars that will never end, which we have warned about and always urged to fight against,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised address following the US announcement.
Jibril Rajoub, who has been floated as a possible successor to Abbas, told CNN that US Vice President Mike Pence — who used the phrase an “eternal undivided Jerusalem” in a campaign advertisement last year — is not welcome in the Palestinian territories. Pence is scheduled to visit later this month.
The United Nations partition plan drawn up in 1947 envisioned Jerusalem as an “international city.”
During the six-day war in 1967, Israel took control the eastern part of Jerusalem from Jordan and later annexed it. Israel still holds the land, which much of the world now considers occupied territory. Palestinians say that any eventual two-state solution should include the return of East Jerusalem, which would serve as the new country’s capital.